I will post the three three drafts I gave to @woodruffbets momentarily on this thread.
Each is more than 30 pages. The language on white supremacy changes subtly but importantly, as I told @woodruffbets, across the drafts. I will highlight those changes as well.
I will also publish a more extensive analysis of the documents on @lawfareblog over the weekend.
A few prefatory notes while the documents are uploading.
First, the later draft is not inconsistent with the earlier drafts. All three identify white supremacist violence as the principal terror threat facing the United States today.
First, the later draft is not inconsistent with the earlier drafts. All three identify white supremacist violence as the principal terror threat facing the United States today.
Second, they do so in slightly different fashions from one another. The earlier draft does so directly. The most recent draft creates a new analytical category of domestic violent extremism, which it designates and the major terror threat.
It then names white supremacist violence as the most significant component of that threat--which presumably also includes threats of violence that are less politically challenging to the administration.
So while the documents use the same data and make broadly the same argument, they have migrated over time toward a less challenging posture for a political echelon that refuses to acknowledge white supremacy as a serious problem.
The first version of the report, which is from 8/19/2020, states baldly that white supremacist actors are the biggest threat right now. Here's the discussion in the executive summary up top: 
Here's the discussion in the body of the report. Again, note that white supremacy is mentioned right up top—as the the highest order threat:
Here is the full document.
documentcloud.org/documents/7202…
documentcloud.org/documents/7202…
Now consider the next version, which I believe is from 8/27/2020.
Notice first that white supremacy is gone from the key takeaways in the executive summary. It has been replaced by "Domestic Violent Extremists." Here's the new language:
Notice first that white supremacy is gone from the key takeaways in the executive summary. It has been replaced by "Domestic Violent Extremists." Here's the new language:
Only in the body of this version of the report does it becomes clear that the report has not exactly been whitewashed of its white supremacy finding. It's gone from the top-line summary, replaced by the generic "Domestic Violent Extremists."
It shows up only at the bottom of the section, where the report makes clear that white supremacist are assessed to be the most dangerous *among Domestic Violent Extremists*.
The full document is available here: documentcloud.org/documents/7202…
The relevant language does not appear to have changed substantially in the final version, which I believe to be from 8/31/2020, though some other items have. That document is available here: documentcloud.org/documents/7202…
So what does it all mean? A few things:
First, I think DHS I&A deserves real credit for—in an administration that openly plays footsie with white nationalists and that refuses to condemn white supremacist violence—identifying this issue as the threat that is is.
First, I think DHS I&A deserves real credit for—in an administration that openly plays footsie with white nationalists and that refuses to condemn white supremacist violence—identifying this issue as the threat that is is.
I have been critical of a bunch of steps I&A has taken and have sought to shed light on it. But this is an intelligence agency speaking truth to power and, under apparent political pressure, not changing its views. I have all kinds of respect for that.
Second, you can see—I think—the effects of the political pressure and the political environment in the change of the language. The drafts are not substantively different, but one of them states the matter baldly. The other buries the finding about white supremacy...
...much deeper in the report and much deeper in the section about terrorist threats. It also treats the white supremacist threat merely as the largest component of a broader category, whereas the earlier version singles it out on its own.
Finally, third, this 8/31/2020 draft is not the final draft. It will be interesting to see whether the document goes through further changes before the document is finalized and made public—if it ever is.
I made this material public because I wanted there to be a benchmark about what the career folks at DHS actually assessed the threats to be against which we can measure whatever the administration actually chooses to release.
We know the answer to that now. The big threat is not anarchists or antifa.
That's all I got.
That's all I got.
